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Dining with Dara: 2010 Year in Review

Posted at 10:20 AM on December 22, 2010 by Jill Riley
Filed under: Dining with Dara

Dara's reflections on a few big trends of 2010


Rethinking Economics

*Victory 44 & Travail were the big news, with chefs as servers - no middleman of waiter means lower prices for you, 5 course meals are $30.

*Heartland, many others getting rid of middleman of produce/meat broker/wholesaler, buying direct from farmers = lower prices for you!

*Piccolo: Also rethinking economics, but getting rid of the big everything that is thought to make restaurant economics work, so, no big dining room, no big entrees, etc. The up side is limited (tiny 18 seat PIccolo will never bring in 4 million dollars a year, the way downtown all-you-can-eat steakhouse Fogo de Chao is said to do) but the down-side is too, and chef Doug Flicker has made a very sustainable place for him to practice his art.

Midwest pride!
*Heartland, everything super-local, and developing an all-local cuisine, with everything from wild plums to chicken of the woods mushrooms to outdoor-raised wild boar or Highland cattle.

*Au Bon Canard, local chefs at this point totally look down on the products of a lot of east coast producers, like Hudson Valley foie gras. We do it better!
*Vodka from Parallel 44 with a tractor on it - years ago it would have been faux-European (karkov!)

*10,000 Hills Grass Fed meat - embracing where we are, a grassland!

*The Midwest pride of Landon Schoenfeld's Haute Dish, with reimagined tuna noodle casserole (seared ahi tuna loin, a pea puree with wasabi, homemade pasta), reimagined mac-and-cheese (with king crab, and talleggio!), reimagined pork and beans (with big chunks of pork belly and beans as big as a checker), reimagined tater tots (homemade!) and so on...

December 2010
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